Using Speaking Frames as Scaffolding Tools to Teach University Students to Speak in ESP

Abstract

This paper deals with the issue of using speaking frames as scaffolding tools for teaching software engineering students to speak in an ESP (English for Specific Purposes) course. We believe that students’ knowledge of the process of learning, and developing their metacognitive skills, may influence their learning outcomes greatly. So, in the study, we used frames as generalized scaffolds, with the idea that, by assigning meanings to objects, images and representations, we could manipulate cognitive functions, such as remembering, perceiving and concentrating, which, in turn, could influence speaking production positively. We aimed to determine the effectiveness of using frames as knowledge representation elements for improving speaking skills of software engineering students in an ESP course, as well as determining the attitudes of these students to using speaking frames for developing their speaking skills. We applied the hypothesis that the quality of students’ monologues may increase considerably if they practiced using scaffolding tools such as speaking frames on a regular basis. We used a mixed research design, and combined qualitative and quantitative approaches. The qualitative approach was aimed at collecting data about students’ attitudes to using speaking frames while developing professional communicative competence in spoken production. For that purpose, we used a questionnaire for students, containing open- and closed-ended questions. The quantitative approach was focused on evaluating the effectiveness of using speaking frames in experimental learning, by comparing the students’ monologue speeches before and after the experimental learning using speaking frames. The study took place in 2019–2020 and involved 41 third-year students of Heat and Power engineering faculty of the National Technical University of Ukraine Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. The results of the study show that the use of speaking frames enabled a significant increase in the number of students who demonstrated a sufficient level of speaking competence. Using frames helped students to reduce repetitions, hesitations, false starts and pauses, and to significantly increase the number of continuous utterances while delivering monologues. The use of speaking frames contributed not only to the improvement of grammar accuracy and formation of lexical fields, but also to the structuring of students’ speech.